Part 481: Operational Report: 01/04/43

The Tuna makes an attack on a ship carrying oil, she hits her with two torpedoes, one dud, one live, and leaves her with her cargo burning merrily.







Japanese planes make bombing runs on our troops advancing south in Burma, but can cause no damage to our men.



They then make a strike at Cox's Bazar, where they manage to shoot down and wound Smith of 67 squadron. They lose more planes doing so however, but that's getting to be normal.








We strike Dili once more, but I may call a halt to these raids, I don't think the runways I can hit are being used, and without fighter support, there is no chance of hitting the one I know is being used.



The Zero's can reach across the water, so why can't my fighters? I'll have a play with their settings today.







The Japanese forces in Kaingtu continue to hover at the 15,000 mark, but are losing more and more squads with each attack, hopefully there will be a Wuhu style sudden collapse here if I keep pushing.









Another quiet day on the fronts. Thought the Japanese score has dropped by 300 points, from a sudden collapse in their base points, I'm not sure what could have caused that, but I'll take it.

See as the Japanese are never going to launch an attack on Port Moresby now, I have ordered the troops to plan for an attack on Kavieng, another fairly high value target at the top of the Bismark Archipelago.



I'm also dispatching the fleet carriers to Suva, ready to make a raid on Rabaul and the surrounding area.






Its another month done, and time for some luverly graphs again. Lets start, as always, by looking at the scores.



The net differences in scores is a Japanese increase in lead of 153 points, which is less than a battleship. (battleships seemingly being the currency at this time.) so while we've not closed on them, they have not pull ahead, unlike last months 500 point increase and the month before's 1,500 point change.



Actual levels of real estate have not changed over the month, with both sides gaining and losing ground in different fronts. We both hold about half of the important areas of the Pacific, with the Japanese having a slight lead.



Of course, we see the same thing happening with the points those bases are worth.



This doesn’t mean there has been no fighting, as both sides have lost many men over the last month – we have lost 753 points, while the Japanese have come off worse and lost 869 points.



Ship losses have been fairly even, with us losing 17 ships to the Japanese 16.



These losses are of fairly equal value, with nothing large being sent to the bottom this month.




Air losses look good, with us losing 350 planes to the Japanese 700. although that's 700 from infinity, so your definition of good is variable.

Here are the files for anyone interested, and its off into April!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=R5FE2QL3